Math 1010 Drug Filtering Lab Name:_____________

The purpose of this lab is to come up with a continuous model for exponential decay.

Dot assumes that her kidneys can filter out 25% of a drug in her blood every 4 hours. She knows
that she will need to take a drug test for an interview in a couple of days. She plans on taking one
1000-milligram dose of the drug to help manage her pain.

1.) Fill in the table showing the amount of the drug in your blood as a function of time and round
each value to the nearest milligram. The first two data points are already completed.

TIME SINCE AMOUNT OF

TAKING DRUG
THE DRUG (HR) IN HER BLOOD
(MG)
0 1000
4 750
8 563
12 422
16 613
20 237
24 178
28 133
32 100
36 75
40 56
44 42
48 32
52 24
56 18
60 13
64 10
68 8

What might a model for this data look like?

2.) Use a graphing utility to make a plot of the above data. Label axes appropriately.
The graph is decreasing and the X line swoop continued going without crossing the X axis anytime
soon.
 1,000
Amount of 960
Drug 920
880
840
800
760
720
680
640
600
560
520
480
440
400
360
320
280
240
200
160
120
80
40 Time
0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40 44 48 52 56 60
3.) Based on your graph, what can you say about the data? For example, is there a pattern? Is
there constant slope?
As time passes the amount of drug decreases .

4.) How many milligrams of the drug are in Dot’s blood after 2 days?
After 48 hours there will be 45mg

5.) How many milligrams of the drug are in Dot’s blood after 5 days?
.43mg of the drug will remain after 5 days
6.) How many milligrams of the drug are in Dot’s blood 30 hours after she took the drug? Explain
your reasoning.
around 111-115mg of drug still remains after 30 hours, because the separation
in the graph is going down by 4. By finding the difference within those hours you
divide by two.
7.) A blood test is able to detect the presence of this drug if there is at least 0.1 mg in a person’s
blood. How many days will it take before the test will come back negative? Explain your
answer.
It will take approximately 6 days for the drug to be less than .1mg. Because
at the 6th day the drug will be at .092 which is less than .1mg
 8.) Will the drug ever be completely removed from her system? Explain your reasoning. What
complications might arise from having excess amounts in her system?

The drug will remain in the body because the horizontal line never will be touching zero, a complication
that could occur is if she were to retake the drug it may take a little longer to remove it from her system.

9.) Since there is a constant rate of decay, a continuous exponential decay model can be used to
determine how much drug is in her system at any time.

Exponential Decay Model

A(t ) = A0e kt
Where A(t) is amount of drug in blood at time t in hours,
A0 is the initial amount of drug, and
k is the rate of decay (it will be a negative number)

You will have to find the actual value of k that works for this model. Write down the exponential
decay model for the amount of drug in Dot’s blood as a function of time:

Model: A(t)= 1000e^ (-0.719t)

Now use that model to fill in the following table:

TIME SINCE AMOUNT OF

TAKING DRUG
THE DRUG (HR) IN HER BLOOD
(MG)
0 1000
4 750
8 565
12 422
16 316
20 237
24 178
28 133
32 100
36 75
40 56
44 42
48 32
 52 24
56 18
60 13
64 10
68 8

10.) Interpret the parameters of this exponential model in terms of the context of the
problem. The Y represents the amounts of the drug and the X is the time.

11.) Compare your values with the estimated values in the model. How close were they?
Why might they be different?

They were close together within a close range of decimal points. They were different because they
were taken at different times.

12.) Use a graphing utility to graph the original data along with a graph of the model on the
same set of axes.

1000
960
920
880
840
800
760
720
AMOUNT OF 680
DRUG IN 640
HER BLOOD 600
560
520
480
440
400
360
320
280
240
200
160
120
80
40

4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40 44 48 52 56 60 64 68

TIME
13.) Were you expecting a horizontal asymptote? What might that mean in the context of
the problem? No because if it would have been a horizontal asymptote that means there
would not have been a change in the the amount of drugs that were being
taken. That shows the different amounts taken at the different hours.

14.) Using your model, how much drug is in her system 17 hours after taking the drug?

about 340 mg.

15.) Using your model, how long will it take for exactly one-half of the drug to remain in her
system? about 11 hours

16.) Using this model, how long will it take for 0.1 mg of the drug to remain in her system?
about 4 - 5 days

17.) Do you think the continuous decay model is more accurate for predicting the amount of
drug in her blood? Why? Or why not?
I think there are other variables that come into play in deciding how much drug will
be in her body at which hour of the day. She could have drank or eaten certain
things that can make the drug exit her body for fast or perhaps more slowly. Also,
not all drugs have the same effect on the body and some can be faster to digest
while others can be slower. I think this model can be used in a general sense but
not something that would be accurate to every drug that is available to consumers.

18.) What other factors should be considered in coming up with a more realistic model?
The persons age, weight, the effects of the drugs and how much dose is being
consumed. Also what the person is eating or drinking or if they are exercising and
sweating out the drug.

19.) Reflective writing: Did this project change the way you think about how math can be
applied to the real world? Write one paragraph stating what ideas changed and why. If this
project did not change the way you think, write how this project gave further evidence to
support your existing opinion about applying math. Be specific.

This project changed my mind a little bit. I think if the project was more realistic and used all the
variables that come into play so the data could be more accurate that would have definitely
changed my mind on math. But I think if you are actually going to determine something like this
and use all the variables that can determine certain results it can be very useful. With graphs like
this you are able to see future results and have a large image available to you if you were wanting
to know other numbers and don't want to do all the work.